Qualla: Fenqihu https://qualla.com/fenqihu en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:37 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Fenqihu https://qualla.com/fenqihu Fenqihu: Introduction https://qualla.com/fenqihu/ The town has no lake, despite what its name suggests. Fenqihu — written with characters meaning "winnowing basket lake" in Taiwanese Hokkien — takes its name from the shape of the surrounding terrain: mountains on three sides cupping the settlement in a basin, the way a winnowing basket cradles grain. The ôo character, meaning lake, refers to this basin rather than any body of water. The geography produced the name, and the railway produced the town. When the Alishan Forest Railway extended its tracks to Fenqihu in 1912, a sleepy settlement at roughly 1,400 meters above sea level became the halfway point of one of Taiwan's most celebrated train journeys — and what happened at that halfway point turned Fenqihu into a culinary landmark.

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/v/fenqihu-wp/wsjv-fenqihu-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Fenqihu: The Lunch Box That Made a Town https://qualla.com/fenqihu/ In the early years of the Alishan Forest Railway, there was one train in each direction each day. The two steam locomotives — heading up toward Alishan and heading down toward Chiayi — both arrived at Fenqihu around noon. They stopped here not for scenic reasons but practical one...

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/v/fenqihu-wp/wsjv-fenqihu-the-lunch-box-that-made-a-town.mp3 0:06 2 full Fenqihu: Old Street on a Slope https://qualla.com/fenqihu/ Fenqihu Old Street is 500 meters long, which sounds modest, but the street climbs a hillside rather than running flat — the buildings step with the slope, their facades aligned to the grade, their interiors deeper than they appear from the front. The architecture has the compress...

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/v/fenqihu-wp/wsjv-fenqihu-old-street-on-a-slope.mp3 0:06 3 full Fenqihu: The Shay and the Station https://qualla.com/fenqihu/ At Fenqihu station, a retired locomotive sits on display: the No. 18 Shay. The Shay was a type of geared steam locomotive designed specifically for steep grades and tight curves — exactly the conditions of the Alishan Forest Railway. Shay locomotives used a flexible drivetrain th...

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/v/fenqihu-wp/wsjv-fenqihu-the-shay-and-the-station.mp3 0:06 4 full Fenqihu: Gateway to the High Forest https://qualla.com/fenqihu/ Fenqihu is not the destination for most Alishan visitors — it is the passage. The railway stops here on the way up and on the way down, and the town has built its identity around that transit position rather than trying to compete with the park above. Tea from the slopes around F...

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/v/fenqihu-wp/wsjv-fenqihu-gateway-to-the-high-forest.mp3 0:06 5 full